ANT COMMUNITIES 



length and thickness, jointed, and articulated upon the 

 face to increase their flexibility. In ants they consist 

 of two parts: the scape, a single piece that unites them 

 to the head, and the rlagellum, composed of a number 

 of segments ending ordinarily in a bulbous tip. 



The olfactory sense has its seat in the antennae, usually 

 in the flagellum or the pore-plates and olfactory rods 

 thereof. While ants are sleeping, as observed in my 

 artificial formicaries, the antenna) have a gentle, quiver- 

 ing, apparently involuntary movement almost like the 

 regularity of breathing. [McC. 3, p. 134.] It seems as 

 if these sentinel organs keep on duty even during sleep, 

 guarding the approaches to their unconscious possessor 

 (Fig. 07). 



Livingstone [Li. 1, p. 576] gives a good example of the 

 dependence of ants upon the sense of smell as lodged in 



Fig. 67 THE FACE OF AN ANT, SHOWING THE FLEXIBLE ANTENNA 



the antennaB. He states that certain African species, 

 which he designates as " soldier ants," when on their 

 pillaging excursions, if their trail be covered with soap 

 and water or with fresh earth, will halt in apparent 

 confusion, and the succeeding ranks will mass in great 



numbers at the point of stoppage. Meanwhile their 



us 



